Bob Shryock: One of Woodbury's finest leaves lasting legacy

Joe "Bells" Colone was a gentle giant of a man, 6-foot-5 and well over 200 pounds in his prime, so you can imagine what a frightening pose he struck outfitted in a tight high school football uniform, with shoulder pads, when he was approaching mid-life.

Retired Woodbury High School AD Tony Gedaka remembers the day in the late 1960s when head coach Bill Morro loaded his team on a bus for the drive to Clearview and a pre-season scrimmage. As a joke, the coaches had assistant coach Colone dress in full uniform.

"You should've seen the expressions on the faces of the Clearview kids when this huge guy gets off the bus with the rest of our players," Gedaka laughs. In warmups, Colone boomed 70-yard punts. "We didn't play him, though."

Colone, 85, one of many educators from the Berwick, Pa., area who migrated to Woodbury to take teaching positions a half-century ago, died July 1 after many years of courageously fighting various illnesses.

Colone was a genuinely nice, fun-loving family guy whose life was wrapped up in sports as a player and a coach. He had a passion for the art of teaching and had a knack for motivating all kids to do well.

While teaching in the system's junior high school for 32 years (1954-86), Colone served as assistant and then head coach in basketball and assistant in football. He was long-time head golf coach, a sport he truly loved and played very well despite bad legs. Joe's legs got so bad, in fact, that he eventually couldn't bend over to put his tee in the ground. Long-time playing partner and close friend Gedaka did it for him. Then Joe usually would beat Tony.

Colone was best known for his basketball playing prowess, first at Bloomsburg State College, then with the NBA New York Knickerbockers in the 1948-49 season when he averaged 5.5 points per game playing forward.

As head coach Speedy Williamson's WHS basketball assistant in the 1954-55 and 1955-56 seasons, Colone played a major role in shaping the career of Dave Budd, who not only became perhaps the county's highest achieving player ever but, ironically, also became a New York Knickerbocker. Because they were similar in height and played the same position, Colone helped to ready Budd's game for the ACC and the NBA and sometimes traveled to Madison Square Garden to see Dave play for his old team.

"Joe meant everything to me," Budd says. "Without him, I'd never have gotten a scholarship to Wake Forest. Without him, I doubt I'd ever have gotten to the NBA. He gave me direction, helped me with my temper. Joe was a major person in my life and we remained close over all these years. On the court and off the court, Joe helped many young people in Woodbury."

Budd had a longer Knicks' career and returned to Woodbury to face his first mentor in the city's old YMCA league. And Budd discovered that Colone was still a formidable player. You didn't want to confront his bulk and savvy inside.

"Even in the later years, Joe could still play," Budd says. "He had a hook shot that he shot from behind his head. Joe was a scorer.

"Joe was a mild-mannered guy, very good-hearted. He was very highly thought of in this community. He did a lot of good things."

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Above all else, Joe was a family man. He and Genevieve were married 57 years. They were parents of five including almost enough sons (four) to field a starting basketball lineup.